


Small packages

by MotherKat



Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-12 03:27:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28753617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MotherKat/pseuds/MotherKat
Summary: Petra is keeping a secret
Relationships: Aloy/Erend (Horizon: Zero Dawn), Aloy/Nil (Horizon: Zero Dawn), Aloy/Petra Forgewoman, Aloy/polyam (Horizon: Zero Dawn)
Comments: 19
Kudos: 16





	1. Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> just an odd thought from a sketch I drew

The small child scaled the wall of freeheap like she was clambering up a sand dune, her twin auburn braids showing the strength of the wind.

“Littlest spark get down from there, your mama won’t be happy if we she gets back she has to take you home on a coal shovel” the dark haired woman spoke fondly if brusquely.

“There are armed men approaching Aunt Petra,” the young girl piped from the top of the tower, scrambling over the battlement.

Petra called her guard together and readied her cannons, FreeHeap stood ready to face whatever the desert offered her.

The disciplined phalanx of men approached, out of expected range of the cannon, hoisted the flag of Meridian, then slowly continued.

Petra kept her glass and her cannons trained on the approaching men until she made out a familiar mohawk “shit, Littlest you need to hide now ok, go into auntie’s workshop and don’t make a peep.”

Erend Vanguardsman and his men reached FreeHeap expecting a warm welcome and were surprised at the tense silence.

“Petra my old friend, where are you, I have scrappersap and stories and spoiled of the wastes for you” Erend bellowed as he was silently allowed to enter the stronghold, his broad grin falling on downturned faces, no-one quite catching his eye.

He charged up the steps of Petra’s tower, “By the forge Petra, what in the name of slag is going on?” 

“Erend my old friend, how nice of you to drop by, when are you heading off?” Petra too couldn’t quite meet his eyes.

His voice softened and lowered, “are we being observed, Petra, are you in danger?”

She raised her eyebrows slightly, “you could say that” she muttered, “honestly old friend, it’d be best for all concerned if you and your men were on your way as soon you can be,” she looked down, “best for my health anyway.”

Erend scanned his steely eyes across the top of the tower, he may not wear a focus but he was a vanguard and the best of them, and he knew something was amiss, he followed the incongruous sounds to the small cupboard room Petra stored those tools of her trade that must stay dry.

He looked at her, “Who’s in your closet Pet?”.

Petra swallowed, “No-one you know.”

“Who is in the slagging closet Petra.”

“Erend,” Petra shook her head, “I’m sorry”.

Erend practically tore the door from the workshop, expecting about anything except the tiny girl hiding beneath Petra’s workbench. 

Blue gray eyes in a freckle strewn face topped with hair the colour of fire kiln root and a tiny, ball tipped arrow drawn on an equally tiny bow were all aimed at the surprised guardsman.

Erend eyes were wide with wonder, he dropped to his knees and put his hands above his head, “I yield little one, you have me captive”.

The tiny warrior nodded, unnotching and stowing her toy arrow, “don’t see why I had to hide Auntie, I caught him easy enough,” turning to address her prisoner “who are you anyway that you had Auntie Petra worried, she has cannons you know”.

Erend gulped and stared in wonderment, softly he answered “that she does, saved the world with them a time or two too, my name is Erend, may I know the name of my captor?”

The small girl smiled, “funny, Mama says my daddy was called that, I am called Ersa”.


	2. Middle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the situation is discussed, and more surprises

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it was going to be a one off, but I had an inspiration

Erend stared owl eyed at his tiny captor, a tremor reached his face that he attempted to school. “Your mama is Aloy, aye?,” he asked, as softly as he could, his voice cracking.

“Aye that,” she responded, stepping forward, “Why is my Auntie afeared of you Master Erend?” the small girl stepped forward, her linen and leather a perfect amalgam of her heritage.

“I think your Auntie thought I’d be angry that she kept secrets from me Little one, she, and you, have nothing to be afraid of, I’m big but I’m not mean.” he opened his big hands wide, “there are a lot of people down there in the courtyard who’d just love to meet you, is your Mama here?”

Ersa shook her head, the beads in her braids clattering, bell like as she did, “She’s off hunting, she should be back by nightfall. Why would they ever want to meet me? Is it because I’m lucky, Auntie says I’m lucky.”

Erend laughed, enchanted by the tiny girl’s candour, “Something like that little one. Scatter off now please, I need to talk to your Auntie Pet.”

“Ok, I’m going to get something to eat and then go see the strangers, bye Auntie, bye Mr Erend.” she waved as she hopped over the parapet and climbed down the wall, ignoring the stairs entirely.

That Petra hadn’t said a word during the entire encounter wasn’t lost on the Oseram warrior, he sat back off of his heels, running his hands over the shaved sides of his Mohawk, “Petra, what the slag?”

She sat down beside him “Aloy turned up 5 years ago, pregnant, bleeding, sick, I patched her up as best I could, she wouldn’t say a word, no-one knew who, until the baby came and she called her Ersa, even then, we weren’t certain until a year ago when littlest asked where her daddy was, Aloy just said that her Daddy was called Erend and that was it, we didn’t press, you know how she is.”

Erend slammed his hands on the stone, “you could have sent me a message, we have written each other more than once, just a mention, Aloy lives here, has a kid, named her after your sister, thought you should know, nothing Pet, I thought we were friends, allies at least.”

Petra met his eye, “We are allies, and sometimes friends, and maybe your girl turned up on my doorstep, pregnant, sick and silent, Erend you have a shitty temper, we both know it, I thought to begin with she’d hooked up with one of those pretty little carja boys, or, or maybe something happened on the road, either way, if she’d wanted to tell yo she would have…”

“And you didn’t mind filling in while there was a vacancy?” Erend scowled,

Petra shrugged, “don’t be like that Erend, she’s... her, I’d never try and keep her, but she needs a safe space for Ersa while she finishes this... whatever it is, the little spark and I make do, and the rest is none of your forge scorched business, so take your hammer and get the hell out of my town if you think you have any right to say who either Aloy or I take to bed, the former is only your business because of the obvious.”

Erend’s face contorted, conflicting emotions warring on his scarred features, softly he said, “she looks like Ersa, the eyes are mine and the colouring is all Aloy, but the shapes of her face, she looks like Ersa, in all these years, no one said a word, even hinted, what did they think I’d do?

Petra looked toward the assembly below, “turn up with a column of Vanguard and storm Free Heap, and dismantle it brick by brick until you got to your kid?” spent the full first year expecting you to either turn up and just curl up with em, or burn us to the ground, take your daughter and leave us for the scrappers and glinthawks.”

Erend looked horrified, “what the slag Pet?”

“I’ve seen you go to war Erend, I didn’t want to be on the receiving end of it, if Aloy didn’t want you to know who was I to argue, she never said anything in her letters?”

Erend looked up at Petra, “What letters? I haven’t heard a word from Aloy since she left Meridian in the middle of the night with that bung of a war criminal, against Avad’s direct request by the way, I thought, I thought she just got bored, bored of Meridian, of politics, of me, never thought that she was afraid of me.”


	3. Conclusions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And we get some answers

“I wasn’t afraid of you Erend, just irritated that you chose Avad and Meridian over me, again” nothing had given away Aloy’s approach as she joined the others on Petra’s overlook, she dropped a casual, habitual kiss on Petra’s head as she came to sit cross legged on the roof in the circle.

Erend’s eyes widened at the casual affection, but he swallowed his pride, “Aloy” he greeted her, his breath an escaping gasp.

Aloy quirked her head and Erend knew she was scanning him with the focus, “you’re looking well, your liver is doing better, how long?”

“1835 days,” he threw in a boyish smile, “give or take, I’ve not drunk seriously since a week after you left, I can still have a drink with the boys, I just don’t drink with purpose anymore” Erend stared at the ground, “Is that why you had me miss it all?”

Aloy looked at him sadly, “I had no idea until Nil and I were out in the wilds, I took a bad blow, wasn’t healing right, scanned myself and realised, we were heading back when a pocket of shadow Carja hit us, He sent me ahead, stayed behind to make sure we   
were safe, I’ve not seen him since.”

Erend instinctively brought his hand to Aloy’s shoulder and she put her own over it, “Petra said you have been writing to me?” his tone was gentle.

She nodded, “once when I arrived, once when Ersa was born, and every year on her birthday, at first I thought you either didn’t care or you’d pulled the cork in behind you, then last year I just assumed you were dead.”

Petra looked up sharply, “last year around the festival of light then.” her jaw set, “I see, excuse me.”

Erend sighed, “Sit down Pet, I’m not trying to steal your family”

Petra looked resignedly at him, “looks more like I was a placeholder for yours.”

Aloy shouted, “enough, nobody is replacing anyone else, what is a family except the people we choose.”  
She ran her hands over her face, “I have enough to figure out without you 2 trying ever so heroically to step out of each other’s way.”

Erend nodded, “Alright, 1 letter getting lost is sad, 2 is a coincidence, 6 is a conspiracy, and we’re good at that, who gains if I never know about our daughter?”

Petra twisted her mouth, “I do, I gain if you never show up”.

Erend shook his head, “we all know you didn’t stop Aloy contacting me, you thought I’d had the letters, and you just wouldn’t.”

Aloy nodded, “you’re almost more Ersa’s mother than I am, I’ve been back on quest since she weaned, you’ve never pushed but I saw how relieved you were when I told her who her father was” Aloy smoothed Petra’s dark hair, “stop trying to step back, or whatever it is you’re doing, I’m not leaving you.”

Erend looked at them with sad eyes, “Alright, so it wasn’t Petra, obviously, you say Nil died in the wastes, for what it’s worth, I am sorry for your sake, I know you loved him.”

Aloy looked at the horizon, “he’s not dead, he still clears out anything too dangerous that gets too close to Free Heap, but, in having Ersa I chose life over death, he needed me to walk the line between the way he does, it’s where we always danced”

Erend looked at Petra and Petra stared back, “don’t ask me, I don’t get it either.”

Erend shrugged, “I never got it, but much like the whole -saving the world with old ones tech- bit, I don’t have to, I just do as I’m told.”

Aloy narrowed her eyes, “why are you here Erend? It’s good to see you and I’m glad, but why specifically are you here now?”

He frowned, “Avad’s wedding is coming up, Talanah wanted me to make sure Petra got her invitation after she had no response, Marad said it wasn’t necessary but Avad thought I needed a vacation”.

“Marad said it wasn’t necessary?” Aloy asked?

Erend’s face went flat, “yeah, ‘couldn’t afford the captain of the Vanguard distracted with such trivialities’ the Bung, between Marad’s spies and the vanguard we have kept the peace pretty well these 5 years, all at the cost of me never having seen my daughter... or you”

It was Aloy’s turn to comfort him, placing her small arm on his shoulder, “you can record a lot with a focus you know, let me fill you in…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a self contained vignette in to one of the multiverse in my brain


	4. epilogue 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Erend and Aloy have a heart to heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I keep thinking this story is finished, unbeta'd all errors are my own.

The Vanguard took over the inn, and made camp outside, the celebration of “the tiny banner” became all at once a baby shower, naming celebration and 4 lots of tiny birthdays, as the twilight drew in Ersa curled into her mother’s shoulder, feeling loved and overwhelmed by her new, well armed and armoured, spikey family. “I’ll take her to bed.”

Erend put his hand on her arm, “can I help…”

Aloy smiled, “of course, Ersa, would you like your Father to carry you up?” Ersa nodded sleepily into the crook of her mother’s neck and Aloy passed the girl across into Erend’s strong arms.

She weighed less than a fattened turkey and felt so small and warm in his arms, Erend found himself wishing he’d shucked his armour so he could hold his tiny daughter closer, she felt so soft and small in his hands.

Aloy led him to a small stone house that seemed to be built into the wall of the town, and unlocked the door with a heavy iron key, Erend had to almost fold himself to get through the door, especially holding his tiny burden.

The house was so utterly Aloy, machine parts littered the wooden table, the stove seemed almost decorative from lack of use, with her road cooking tools balanced by the open fire instead, there were Banuk style paintings on the walls, and more abstract designs lower down, obviously daubed by tinier hands, herbs hung drying from every beam, the doorway marked with height notches.

Erend followed Aloy through another frustratingly small door, and up a set of tight stairs, now he really wished he’d not worn his armour, until he finally reached a tiny bed that appeared to be anchored to the ceiling so it would rock, he tucked the tiny girl under her thick furs and kissed her freckled forehead, “I don’t want to miss any more Aloy, not a second more”. 

Aloy beckoned him through to the next room, unlike the smaller room this one had a window with a workbench beneath it, strange, round, white lamps adorned the walls they flickered to life as Aloy walked past, a overstuffed armchair sat next to a pot bellied stove and a broad bed, unmade and covered in furs graced the middle of the room, tucked into the opposite corner to the door stood a carousel of Aloy’s different tribal armours, again Banuk style paint decorated every available surface, it was warm and light, Erend looked around, “Where’s Petra’s stuff?”

Aloy looked at him confused, “at...her house. She doesn’t live with us, we have an… arrangement, is that why you’re so uncomfortable here?”

Erend laughed, “that and your house appears to have been built to Ersa’s scale,” he said gesturing to his still bobbed head, as he stood, too tall for the room.

Aloy hastily cleared a selection of clothes from the chair and gestured him sit, opening the window and grabbing some bottled ale from the window box she poured into a couple of ceramic mugs from the workbench and passed him one, it looked all the word like he was trying to play tea party, so she took the cup back and handed him the remainder of the bottle, raising her cup she whispered, “welcome home,” and drained the first cup.

Erend sighed, “you don’t much look like you want to converse Red”. He put the bottle on the ground without tasting it.

Aloy ran her hand over her hair, “I’ve imagined you in this room thousands of times and none of them included you having never read one of my letters, none of them involved you not fitting in the room, if I’d known, had any idea you didn’t know I’d have come myself..”

Erend launched to his feet, cracking his head as he did, clapping his hand to his head he glared at her, “you know that’s the bit that hurts Red, you can solve a mystery in a glance, you can know me the way you used to, and you can think, you can even imagine, that I wouldn’t have been here in a heartbeat if I had know,” he sat back down, broken, “I’d rather you’d thought I was dead”.

Aloy looked hewn from marble, “I did”.

“What?” Erend looked confused, 

“The festival of light last year, was just when I accepted it must be true, every time no response came, I thought you were dead, I couldn’t believe it but, the first letter, maybe it never found you, but I thought, I thought if you knew, then, if there had been any way to come, you would have,”

Aloy half choked out the words, “when you didn’t come after her birthday, I thought you must be dead, slipped out of this world, I mourned you, every year with more certainty, then last year, we sat to toast Rost and remember the other fallen, Nora Lanterns and Oseram fireworks, in my heart I buried you.”

Erend held tongue, giving Aloy the space to empty herself.

“I knew from before that if we were going to be a family it’d need to just be us, last year was just when I gave up waiting, Petra had always been a possibility, just a path I wouldn’t take if it would stop Ersa having a real family.”

“Hey” Erend interjected quietly, “you’re putting words in my mouth, I never asked for any kind of promise like that from you, I’m not Nil’s biggest fan but that’s because he’s a murderer, not because he is, or was, your lover, you think I’d … I thought you were dead too alright, you’ve been gone 5 years, I thought you were gone, I don’t care if you’ve taken up with your machine oil drinking friend or a snapmaw, you’re alive, and we have a daughter.”

Aloy grinned, wet eyed, “We have a daughter, and you’re not angry I let Petra be part of her life?”

Erend’s warm laugh rolled out, “our daughter has another great person who loves her, how isn’t that great? And for what little it’s worth, I’m glad for you too Aloy, Petra is good people, if I was going to lose you, I’ll acknowledge, if nothing else, she has the bigger cannon.” he wriggled his eyebrows.

“Hey” Aloy interjected, her hands going to the clasp of her armour, “who says you’ve lost me.”


End file.
